Current inventory tracking systems track inventory of items being shipped by first checking the inventory at the shipping origination location and then at the receiving location. These inventories can then be compared to determine if something was lost in transit. One method used to simplify the taking of inventory is with the use identification tags such as electronic identification tags. An example of an electronic identification tag is passive or active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. With this system each item, or group of items, has an RFID tag attached that contains information that identifies the item, or group of items. A sensor or reader at a known location simply reads the information off of the RFID tag when the item is passed through a detector/reader or passes within the vicinity of a reader.
One limitation of this system is that not all shipping locations and receiving location have detectors/readers to read the identification tags. Another limitation of the current system is that inventory can not be inventoried during transit, unless readers are present on the transportation vehicle. These vehicles equipped with readers can only report if the item is currently present on the vehicle, but can not provide insight in to the location of the inventoried item. Hence, events that occur during transit that effect the inventory cannot be monitored.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an efficient, automated method of inventorying items during transit on vehicles.